N.H. rail advocates say their time has come

Sunday

Peter Griffin said he always knew that one day, New Hampshire would embrace passenger and freight rail service the way it did more than 75 years ago when it powered the state's economy.

Train travel, he says, now is much more attractive to people given what he describes as a perfect storm of high gasoline prices, which now are more than $4 per gallon for regular unleaded, a higher cost of living and the public's desire to have more transportation choices.

New Hampshire rail advocates hope to build momentum Monday night when they host a forum at St. Anselm College in Goffstown to discuss how increased passenger rail service could accelerate the state's economy.

Michael Dukakis, a former Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and Massachusetts governor, will be the keynote speaker at the forum, scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. He will be joined by State Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, chairman of the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority, and Griffin, president of the New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association.

"This is a no-brainer," said Dukakis during a telephone interview from his Boston office Thursday afternoon. "The highways don't work anymore. We're spending thousands of hours just sitting around."

Griffin said New Hampshire needs to diversify its transportation infrastructure like investors do when they put their money into several retirement plan mutual funds. He said Maine has made great inroads with the Downeaster, which offers daily passenger service from Portland, Maine, to Boston, and plans are under way to expand that service from Portland to Brunswick.

He said Massachusetts also is working to expand its passenger and commuter rail service, including by restoring the rail line between Springfield and Boston.

Griffin said New Hampshire rail advocates want to see the New Hampshire Northern Corridor project happen. It would provide high-speed rail service between Boston and Montreal, Canada. He said the first phase of a study by the Vermont Agency of Transportation found more than 600,000 people would use the service and generate nearly $25 million in annual revenue.

Griffin said his group wants the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to conduct the second phase of the study.

The economic benefits for New Hampshire's tourism industry alone would be tremendous, he said. At a time when attendance at events such as Motorcycle Week in Laconia and NASCAR races in Loudon have declined, expanded rail service could help, Griffin said.

New Hampshire officials were wise to buy rail corridors that stretch from Ossipee to Conway, Concord to Lebanon, Portsmouth to Seabrook and Manchester to Lawrence, Mass., so they can reserve the option to restore rail service in those areas, he said.

Dukakis, also a past vice-chairman of the board of directors of Amtrak under the Clinton administration, said high-speed rail could go as fast as 125 miles per hour, the same speed high-speed trains travel in Great Britain.

He said businesses are going to want to be located where they can have good highways and high-speed rail corridors.

He said he hopes New England governors and members of the New England congressional delegations will form a coalition to support projects like the New Hampshire Capitol Corridor.

He said the Downeaster already has shown how a passenger rail service can spur economic development.

At a rail forum in Dover in April, several regional and state planners discussed the benefits generated by the Downeaster since it began service in December 2001.

Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority in Portland, which manages the Downeaster, said total ridership is projected to increase this year to more than 2 million people, and revenues are projected to increase another $5.5 million — which amounts to 21 percent increase in both areas.

Quinn also said the Downeaster has inspired Saco, Maine, officials to build an $80 million commercial and residential development near its train station.

By the year 2030, Quinn said the Downeaster could generate $72 million in annual revenue for Maine and save $152 million in transportation costs in New Hampshire.

But rail advocates acknowledge that getting New Hampshire and Maine lawmakers to invest in rail infrastructure improvements has been difficult.

Nicholas Coates, a planner with the North County Council who coordinated Monday's forum, said New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association officials have estimated it would cost $200 million to repair rail beds from Salem to Manchester and from Concord to White River Junction, Vt., for the New Hampshire Capital Corridor.

He said New Hampshire would have to fund 20 percent, or $40 million of those costs, and the federal government would fund the remaining 80 percent. Rail advocates hope businesses would be willing to contribute $20 million of the state's portion, and Coates said chambers of commerce in Nashua, Manchester and Concord have been very supportive.

Meanwhile, the Downeaster's Quinn said in April that her group is struggling to get Maine and New Hampshire lawmakers to provide $8 million in federal subsidy money needed to keep the train running after 2009.

Repeated efforts to get New Hampshire to provide $3 million of those annual operating costs have failed.

Coates said rail advocates want to make the case that New Hampshire and Maine should want to invest money to subsidize rail service the same way they choose to make highway improvements.

"Rail service is not going to make a profit, but what it will do is bring more people up here to spend money who otherwise would not," Coates said.

Griffin said projects like the proposed New Hampshire Capital Corridor also would help businesses take advantage of more freight train service.

He said companies will look more to rail to get goods and materials than to traditional trucking because freight trains could cost less.

Dukakis said he believes the addition of high-speed rail service for all of Northern New England is inevitable and will pay countless dividends when it happens.

"It's just too bad it's taken us so long to get to this point," he said.

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